Selection process

Principal Investigator Indian Partner Institution + Principal Investigator Heidelberg University

Forming of research tandem;
submission of research proposal for specific PhD student
evaluation by scientific board

Phase 1

6 – 10 weeks‘ internship at Heidelberg University
up to 20 candidates/year
evaluation by scientific board

Phase 2

up to 2 years visit at Heidelberg University
up to 10 students/year
joint supervision of PhD candidate by both PIs

granting of PhD after 4 years
  1. Twice during each year the program holds RTG Big Data Research Network Meetings to bring together scientists from the Indian and German partners. The main aim of these workshops is to match suitable partners to form researcher tandems.
  2. Research tandems define possible research topics that are coherent with the main objectives of the RTG program. After the PhD entry exams at each institute, a research tandem can apply for funding of phase 1 by submitting a preliminary research proposal matched to a specific PhD candidate to the scientific council of the RTG.
  3. The scientific council evaluates the phase 1 applications on a case by case basis. Decision on granting financial support to phase 1 applications is based on
  • Performance of the PhD candidates (grades, CV, letter of motivation).
  • Topic of the phase 1 research
  • Distribution between the institutions and gender distribution of the candidates (as tie-breaker)
  1. Up to 20 projects can be admitted to phase 1 during the course of one year (current phase: Oct 2018 to Sep 2019). The support consists of a 6 – 10 weeks’ lab internship of the PhD candidate in the labs of the German supervisor of the research tandem in Heidelberg.
  2. After the phase 1 internship, the research tandem writes an evaluation report to the scientific committee. This report and skype presentations by all phase 1 PhD candidates are the basis for the funding decision for phase 2 by the scientific committee.
  3. The scientific committee evaluates all phase 1 internship and selects up to 10 projects for funding in phase 2. Phase 2 consists of a sandwich visit (up to 2 years) to Heidelberg during the PhD research. Essentially, this plan further develops the RTG program by installing a concrete timeline for the two program phases.

So far three PhD students entered the program. The first phase 1 („phase 1.2018”) will continue until end of September 2019. During this period the program aims to recruit seven more PhD candidates to fill the first year recruitment completely. Research tandems can apply directly to the head of program in Heidelberg, Michael Winckler as contact to the scientific council, to propose further phase1 internships to the program. Applications should contain:

  1. CV of the two supervisors
  2. CV, transcripts and letter of motivation of the candidate
  3. description of the lab project for the internship including time line
  4. abstract for a possible PhD project The scientific board of RTG Big Data Research will evaluate each application individually and will decide within 4 weeks of the application.
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